So I've just recently started thinking about my water and how it affects my beer. My first batch was done with my tap water and it came out pretty good. All batches since have been made with filtered fridge water, and with the exception of an extract batch where I caramelized the hell out of the extract all others have tasted okay as well.

My wife thinks that our water is pretty hard, and based on the buildup on the drip tray under our fridge water dispenser and the buildup on our shower head I'm inclined to believe her. The tap water tastes fine to me, but my wife will only drink from the fridge.

I've looked on my city's website and found a city report and a county report. Since the county is rather large I would assume that the city report would be more appropriate, but I'm wondering if having my own analysis would provide more accurate results.

The city report can be found here if anyone cares to take a look and give me some thoughts.

I've just read Yooper's sticky and know that I will eventually understand it, but it's going to take a bit of study and me being at home instead of work so that I can really dig into it.

The report is useless to brewers. It contains information on contaminants, but not the Secondary Parameters that brewers want to know. You'll probably need to send a sample off for testing. You could call the utility and they might have the parameters we use.

Hardness is not a bad thing in brewing. Don't discount the suitability of the tap water for that reason. Its the alkalinity that often makes some sources less suitable. A complete testing of those secondary parameters will help. Visit the Water Knowledge page on the Bru'n Water website to gain a better understanding of what you're looking for in a water report.

Your wife probably likes the water filtered through activated carbon which removes the chlorine or choramine along with any pond-scum flavors and aromas that might be in the water.